Local Garden Harvest = Local Grown Health
by deZengo
We have established, over countless years many independent thinking minds that there is an interconnection between people and planet. Perhaps in the very next breath it was proclaimed that the global market served the greater “good” and it is in the best interest of humanity if the corporations continue expansion and extraction! There is no doubt that we can purchase products for less by using cheaper materials and paying minimal labor wages. Even our food sources must be examined to truly see how a lesser purchase price does not always equal savings in the long run. We do not recommend saving money at the expense of your future health.
September winds down another harvest for our local and backyard farmers; however, the number of independent farmers who still exist to provide healthy / natural food in our communities has all but dwindled away. The reasons are economically driven! The farmers cannot compete with food that is mass produced, genetically engineered, chemically sprayed toxins, injected anti-biotics, hormones, immunizations in the name of maximizing production (profit). To find out more about the entire food process we recommend watching the movie Food Inc. Of course, it will change the way you look at your food and has been known to motivate investigation and implementation of alternative methods for meeting our local demand for food. Time magazine shows briefly a frustrating and layered choice, one that implicates many other questions: What’s the most efficient way to grow food for all? Should farms be big or small, family- or corporate-run? How do your choices affect the planet? What tastes better? And then there’s that little matter of cancer. Why Eat Locally Grown Food?
Revenue Stays Local – When you buy direct from local farmers, your dollars stay within your community, and strengthen the local economy. More than 90¢ of every dollar you spend goes to the farmer, thus preserving farming as a livelihood and farmland. This is important because as mergers in the food industry have increased, the portion of your food dollar paid to farmers has decreased. Vegetable farmers earn only 21¢ of your dollar; the other 79¢ goes to pay for marketing, distribution, and other costs.
Food Tastes Better – John Ikerd, a retired agricultural economics professor who writes about the growing “eat local” movement, says that farmers who sell direct to local consumers need not give priority to packing, shipping and shelf-life issues and can instead “select, grow and harvest crops to ensure peak qualities of freshness, nutrition and taste.” Eating local also means eating seasonally, he adds, a practice much in tune with Mother Nature.
